


cause you're the one — miraculous ladybug oneshots

by amore_eel



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Multi, Original Character(s), hope ya'll enjoy!, i added in lila as a character individually because i.., i have issues to work through, made of his own universe so, original character(s)/canon character(s) - Freeform, pepi castillo's my miraculous oc, seriously it's fine, this is me putting in my glorified self-inserts, to try and fix the mess thomas astruc, very very salty issues, ya'll if this ain't your cup of tea don't read it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 15:14:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20566451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amore_eel/pseuds/amore_eel
Summary: this is really just me writing oneshots with my oc in them — not all of them, though ;3some of them will be for the show, itself, but most will be of my oc and how i project onto her (sorry, pepi).i'm so bad at writing summaries this isn't even funny — just, please enjoy before i embarrass myself into deleting this.[rated T for language! be warned, i swear like a sailor]





	cause you're the one — miraculous ladybug oneshots

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for choosing to read this shitstorm of... whatever i'm writing. please enjoy while you're here, and feel free to exit at any time!

**luka, over the course of many weeks and many days of his friend**   
** crying on his shoulder, finally comes to a realization.**   
** [ luka couffaine / pepi castillo (oc)]**

_ I've waited all my life _— 

**PEPI CASTILLO HAD****BEEN** akumatized two weeks ago into Ek Huil, and diagnosed with anxiety and light depression half a week later. She'd been excused from school, and had been staying at home, mostly, and away from social media. 

Mafdet had gone off the radar two weeks ago, which wouldn't normally be a concern, except for the fact that the longest she'd ever been out of commission was five days. The people of Paris were justifiably concerned — this was one of their superheroes, after all, and what kind of people wouldn't be concerned?

Ladybug and Chat Noir were handling things just fine, with the occasional help of Rena Rouge and Carapace — even Queen Bee, but very scarcely — and had kept Paris from falling apart so far. But, Mafdet was their friend, and more importantly, so was Pepi Castillo... but they didn't know _that_ about each other, of course.

Pepi's friends were beginning to worry. _Correction_, they had been worried after the reason for their friend's akumatization was revealed, and now they're practically pissing themselves with stress.

Lila's influence on Alix, Rose, and Juleka had decreased a bit, but not by much. They were still friends, but... the strain is there. Especially on Pepi and Alix's relationship.

Alix should have known better than to start ignoring Pepi over something someone _outside_ of the relationship had said. Should have known better than to start pressing and bossing around her girlfriend three weeks before a big ballet performance, before the major project for this semester. Should have known better than to stop talking to the light of her life over a small misunderstanding.

Luka Couffaine had seen the stress of Pepi's despondence weigh on his sister and friends for the past few days, and couldn't say he felt much better. Sure, the pressure of being a lycée student wasn't easy, but having to live with the fact that Pepi — one of his very good friends — had been akumatized _because_ of that very same stress, and more?

It broke his heart.

**PEPI CASTILLO HAD RETURNED** to the collège three weeks after her akumatization, and to say the least, everyone around her had been acting like walking in the space around the young girl was like walking on eggshells.

It was kind of disheartening.

Rose and Juleka had barely spoken with her the whole day, and she and Alix hadn't spoken _at all_. Lila, wisely, was steering clear of the girl who — as most of the school is aware — she had gotten akumtized. Marinette Dupain-Cheng is the only, _only_ person who didn't hesitate before speaking to her.

Tsiite is nuzzling her thigh through her bag as she sits on the steps of her school, waving goodbye to Marinette ("Don't you live a bit away, though? You can —" "I'll be fine, Marinette, go finish your Art History homework.") with a small smile.

Pepi subconsciously reaches her hand up to rub it nervously against the shaved bottom half of her head. After being akumatized over such a _trivial, petty_ thing like depression — _it's nothing, she should be able to get through it, she's a big girl _— she'd wanted to cut herself off from that version of herself as much as possible. So, she got an undercut.

Tsiite pokes his head out, takes a look at his charge — zoning out with glassy eyes — and settles for hugging her hip, instead. Pepi, vaguely aware of the comforting pressure against her hip, absentmindedly reaches her hand down to pet his head.

A tear manages to slip out just when footsteps make themselves heard, and Tsiite dives back into Pepi's back as the distressed girl hastily swipes a hand across her cheek before looking up into familiar, comforting blue eyes.

Luka Couffaine smiles at her. It's a sad smile — sympathetic. "You seem sad."

He takes his guitar off his back and positions it in his lap as he sits on a step lower than hers, turning his body toward her. Pepi straightens — watching Luka translate feelings into songs with synesthesia was always interesting. He'd always be interesting.

"Something like this." And Luka does what he does best and he plays her song. Pepi deflates, and the melody is worming its way through her stomach and wrapping herself around her heart because, as always, he's right.

Pepi inhales, drawing one of her knees up to her chest and hugging it, digging her fingers into her tights. "You do that all the time," she huffs with a tiny smile, barely acknowledging the tears that trickle down her cheeks. "Without fail."

"I _do_ have synesthesia," Luka reminds her, nudging her shin with his elbow softly. 

He stares at her with a soft smile, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly. Pepi sniffles, taking his hand resting on his guitar and squeezing it gently. Luka grips her hand tighter, and a sob crawls its way out of her throat.

Her bag strap falls off her shoulder as she hugs both of her knees tightly, and Luka's eyes sadden at the sight of the crying girl. He sets his guitar down gently, moves himself up to her step, and wraps his arm around her slightly trembling figure.

"Don't be sad," is all he can say. It's the best he can say — Pepi doesn't need sugarcoated empty promises. She needs a friend.

She needs him.

**LUKA'S SCHOOL THAT DAY** had been called off. A large akuma had recently dealt heavy damage to his lycée building, harming a few of the students. It was one of the biggest in a while, and all six heroes had been called in.

He's sitting on his family's house-boat around the time Juleka's lunch would be, mindlessly strumming the strings on his guitar, thinking of a certain blue-haired baker girl when a faint sob catches his attention and he lifts his head.

Pepi is clumsily walking toward the board that people often use to board the boat, and Luka sets his guitar down on an amp before rushing over to the blotchy-faced girl to make sure she doesn't fall into the Seine.

"Woah, hey there — " His hands latch onto her waist as hers clutch his jacket. "Are — are you okay, Pepi?"

Another sob wretches its way out of her throat and they stumble onto the deck. "I — I broke up with Alix," she cries, digging her nails into Luka's jacket and wetting his Jagged shirt with her tears. "It — it was for us, for _me_, and — and we s-said it was a mutual decision, but —" her voice breaks, and Luka frowns.

Breaking up with your first isn't ever easy. He learned that with Josue.

Luka escorts Pepi downstairs, and they clumsily crash onto the couch set against the wall. Pepi curls herself into her friend, though her shaking and cries have calmed down. Luka pats her back consolingly, saying nothing and being the friend that she needs.

He can feel it. Pepi's torment and sadness and pain, and he can't play her song because he'd left his guitar upstairs — so he settles for humming softly into her ear.

Pepi lets out another sob, pressing her face into his shoulder. Her much shorter hair is frazzled, and she's late to class by now — but she doesn't really give a shit. She can't force herself to give a shit, really.

Luka whispers into her ear — words of comfort, assurances that she'd have his support no matter what route she took next. That she'd forgive, but not forget. That she'd still have her _real_ friends, even when terrible events that seemed like the end of the world to her would happen.

She'd always have him.

**LUKA CAN'T BELIEVE HIS** luck — Ladybug, Paris' poster superhero, offering him a Miraculous? The chance to be a hero? To fight alongside Ladybug, Chat Noir, _Mafdet_? Who in their _right mind _would pass up such an opportunity?

He didn't. This is Viperion's second outing since his debut, and the wind in his hair and the refreshing feeling of running across rooftops is fresh in his mind.

Ladybug — the beautiful, strong, brave hero whose blue eyes reminded him of the sky and the warm water of the Seine and sitting beside another beautiful blue-eyed girl — lands beside him, and Viperion detransforms back into Luka and returns the Snake Miraculous to her with a goodbye to its kwami, Sass.

"Thank you, again, Ladybug, but I need to check on my friend."

Ladybug smiles with pink barely visible under her mask, a mischievous thing, but a warm sight. "She's fine, trust me."

Luka raises his eyebrows — he never told her who his friend was. Ladybug merely winks, gives a salute ad a goodbye before grappling away with her yoyo. Luka walks out and in the direction where he left Pepi.

Pepi, who's sitting at a table at a cafe a block away from where he left her. Pepi, who's threaded her fingers through her hair and has it tangled and gripped so tightly Luka thinks she would tear it out if he doesn't hurry and take a seat beside her.

"Pep?"

"It's getting worse." She lets go of her hair and drops her hands on the table, beside her phone. "Luka, I can't... I'm — I've got anxiety, and the medication is helping but I can't sleep at night sometimes... what if — ? A-and, I've got the recital next week and Lila's being _terrible _— "

He places a hand on her shoulder, making the nervous girl pause and blink up at him. "Breathe, Pepi." She complies, taking a few deep breaths and her shaking hands still. "Awesome. Now, I had a friend who was like you — but they didn't have the means to have it officially diagnosed by a doctor, so our school counselor had to help them. Their parents weren't very accepting of them, but they had us.

"What's happening to you is... you'll be alright. You'll be fine, as long as you don't stress yourself out. You need to take note of what triggers your responses, try taking some time for yourself." Luka grins crookedly, prompting a small laugh from the distressed girl. "You'll have us, too, you know? You're my friend."

Nothing in Pepi breaks. She doesn't feel sad that _friend_ is all he'd referred to her by, because she knows that that's what they are. After her akumatization, they were friends. After Alix, they were friends. And they'll always be friends, no matter what.

Marinette, on the other hand, who's watching from a bit away, waiting for Luka to return to her table... she's kind of sad.

**PEPI CLUTCHES MARINETTE'S ARM** tightly, as the slightly shorter girl stands in front of her and across from Lila in the courtyard defiantly. Lila is standing with a faked kicked puppy look on her face, and frazzled hair and clothes, and Marinette is defending Pepi, who's standing with a black eye and bruised arms.

"I — I can't — " Lila sniffles, tears streaming down her face. They're nothing compared to the cascading droplets of salt rolling down Pepi's cheeks. "Why would you h-hit me, Pepi? I di — I didn't do _anything_ to you, I j-just wanted to b-be your f-f-friend!"

"You're wrong, Lila!" Marinette says protectively, standing in front of her friend. "Pepi hasn't _done_ anything to you and _you_ know it!"

"Oh, please," Alix scoffs. Pepi chokes out a sob, and she looks smaller than ever. "You don't need to keep protecting her, Marinette. She gets akumatized, breaks up with me, starts hanging around with _Luka_, Marinette — don't you —?"

"_I do_," Marinette says quickly, cutting her off, "but Pepi's my friend, and if she needs me when none of you guys are going to be here for her, then so be it. I trust her." She turns her head to approaching footsteps and her eyes widen, a blush reaches her ears, before she's thrown back into the situation and her eyes harden.

"What happened?" Luka sounds angry. Angry and concerned and worried. Two of the most important people to him are standing in a crowd of, like, ten — students from Ms. Mendeleiv's class, probably, plus Marinette and Pepi, themselves — against more than twenty.

Marinette's hard eyes flickering to the Italian girl in the center of the furious crowd was all the answer Luka needed. The calm guitarist looks like he's about to piss himself out of anger, and as he stares at the angry adolescent faces, he realizes that maybe he should tell someone. His mother, that feisty old witch, would do anything to protect her kids' friends.

"I'll take her." Luka reaches for Pepi, whose head turns toward him with dilated pupils, and fear is written across her face before she relaxes and sees it's him.

"Luka!" Ivan, Mylene, and several of their friends who have hung out with him before look horrified. Luka ignores them, exactly how he'd learned to ignore the bullies at his old school.

"C'mon, Pepi." Pepi clutches onto the arm of his jacket like it's a life line. He turns his head back to Marinette. "You, too, Ma-Ma-Marinette. We're walking you home, you shouldn't have to deal with this kind of stress on your lunch break."

Marinette smiles gratefully, shooting a scathing look at the student body before following the other two teenagers out of the school. As they pass the bakery, Marinette asks them where they'll be going, to which Luka replies that he'll be taking Pepi home, too — it's on his way to where the house boat is currently docked, after all.

When they arrived at Pepi's suite-apartment, Cris Castillo answered the door. The next hour or two that followed was a blur of anger, pain, and sympathy for the rattled girl — things had not been easy since her akumatization a month and a half ago.

When Luka left, he gripped the strap of his guitar and picked at a loose thread nervously. His worry for his younger friend didn't subside until he laid in his bed at the house boat, allowing the gentle rocking of the waves to lull him to sleep.

Even then, for the first time in months, the girl he thought of before falling asleep didn't have blue hair.

**TODAY WAS A ROUGH** day in terms of akuma attacks. There'd been two — a slighted photographer and another akuma, much more powerful than the photographer, who was an angry seamstress on a rampage after a jealous coworker destroyed half of her studio.

Viperion, Carapace, and Mafdet joined the second fight. It was taxing, but rewarding, as it was over in a shorter time than it would have been had they not showed up. All of the heroes used their superpowers, and Mafdet had sped into an alley seconds before her transformation let up in a flash of brown light.

A squeak sounds from behind her, and Pepi tenses, clenching and unclenching her fists. Tsiite was floating in front of her face with wide eyes, and Pepi inhales deeply.

"Please tell me it's a rat, Tsiite," Pepi says through gritted teeth. Her kwami looks back at her with a look on his face as if he'd been caught with his hand in the meat freezer.

The slightly trembling girl turns slowly with tightly shut eyes, only cracking her eye open the slightest. Pepi deems it safe to open her eyes completely when she sees a flash of red-and-black suit, but she's extremely mistaken once her eyes flick to a taller figure with blue frosted tips in a Jagged Stone shirt.

A moment of silence where Ladybug looks tensely between the two civilian forms of her friends, and half of her is wishing that they _please, don't get closer, I can't handle it_, and that they _please talk it out, because this atmosphere is suffocating and I kind of have to pee_.

"Luka?" With a fleeting glance at Ladybug, who looks extremely uncomfortable, Pepi nods slightly with a minuscule smile. Ladybug's shoulders relax, and she pats Luka's arm with a warm, encouraging smile before grappling away.

Luka blinks at her. And he doesn't say _anything_. He's speechless.

"Uh," Pepi wrinkles her nose, bringing her hand up to cover her nostrils. "Do you want to talk somewhere else? This place is..."

"Stinky." Luka seems to realize he'd said something, and is pleasantly surprised when Pepi giggles. His neck prickles slightly, and he reaches up to rub it with a shy smile.

Pepi smiles at him as the brown-spotted thing floating beside her head dives into her bag. "Come on, I know a place."

**THE NEXT TIME LUKA** sees Mafdet — the superhero, not her civilian alter-ego, because he hadn't been talking to her as often as he did — after that, he's utterly floored. He'd been seeing brown eyes instead of bright blue, lately, and the confused teenager doesn't really know what to do about it. He'd been so polite, yet obvious, with his feelings for Marinette — a beautiful, truly amazing girl who had stolen his heart when he met her — that he didn't know how to process the newfound feelings for this girl who has been a family friend since she moved to Paris.

But, of course, it's during an akuma attack, so Luka has his sister and her friends run to safety half a second before the furious akuma lands behind him. He whirls around with wide eyes — where were the heroes? — and stares at the scowling victim before him, who looked no older than him. 

Luka takes a step backward, and the akuma clenches its fist, causing a whip-looking weapon to materialize in its hand. Before it can lift its arm to strike him, a yellow-and-brown blur comes crashing on top of the akuma, successfully tackling him.

"Hello, Luka Couffaine," says the heroine and — oh, _God_ — it's Pepi's brilliant, mirthful smile under the mask of a selfless superhero and Luka doesn't think he can handle the way his heart almost jumped out of his chest in surprise and pleasant shock.

"Hi." _Good job, shit-for-brains_.

Mafdet laughs, getting up and standing straight with one foot still on the akuma's back. "I'm going to need you to come with me, sir," she begins in a voice mocking Officer Raincomprix, "I'll escort you to safety while Ladybug and Chat Noir arrive to cleanse the akuma."

Luka blinks himself out of his stupor to give a grin at her. One that wouldn't give away who the current occupant of his mind is — _surely_ not. "Of course! I'd be safe no where, if not in the hands of Paris' prettiest hero."

He doesn't seem to realize what he'd said, but Mafdet sure does. Her cheeks pinken under her mask, and she rolls her brown, cat-like eyes before abruptly taking Luka in her arms and carrying him bridal-style. The boy makes a surprised noise that sounds like a small, frightened squawk before Mafdet takes a few steps back to get a running start, and jumps onto the roof of the building in front of them.

When she sets him down a few roofs later, onto a large flat one of — what he's assuming is — an apartment complex, Luka has to hold his arms out for a bit to steady himself.

"It's always strange the first time," Mafdet informs with a kind smile. She huffs, turning and walking toward the edge of the building, leaning against the railing. Her short, short hair is being tousled by the wind, and her belt-like tail is swaying slightly and curling around her leg every now and then, much like the way Pepi would twirl a hair around her finger when she was nervous.

She's nervous. "That akuma was," Mafdet tilts her head and blows air out of her nose, "_taxing_. I'd been fighting it for a bit before it ran in your direction, but I heard Ladybug's yoyo a while back so they've probably —"

Pink ladybugs rise into the air and fly around the area Luka had just been in, and fly off toward the Trocadero fountains to fix the mess there. Mafdet laughs cheerfully.

"Yep, that's it." When Luka doesn't respond, Mafdet feels her tail curl itself around her leg as she turns her body slightly, and her cat ears twitch nervously. "Luka?"

The boy shakes his head slightly, meeting her eyes with his own. Mafdet is breathless. "Sorry, I was thinking... what were you saying?"

Mafdet releases a shuddering sigh, her fingers trembling slightly as she turns to fully face him. She leans back against the railing, her tail flicking about behind her anxiously. "Is... is this too much for you...? Because — I can — " She releases a shuddering breath, recalling her transformation. Tsiite pops out of her glove, and Pepi offers him a small baggie full of meat from her pocket to recharge with, and he floats off to a different part of the roof. 

Luka's shoulders lose the little tension they've accumulated since they landed on the roof, though the sight of Pepi with the steadily setting sun casting light and shadow over her stature — _she's beautiful _— did nothing for his nerves. 

Pepi gives him a little smile, her anxiety getting the better of her as her breathing picks up. She pinches and pulls at the indestructible material of her Miraculouses, on her hands, as Luka approaches slowly. Pepi looks downward and blinks her eyes as two hands with black nail polish reach out to hers slowly.

She opens her hands and Luka grips them tightly. Pepi's tears well up in her eyes and she blinks rapidly, allowing her bangs to fall into her face.

"You — you didn't seem to want to talk to me the day afterward, a-and I didn't know if you were okay with it or not — " Pepi is given pause by the squeeze Luka gives her hands, and he rubs his thumb over her knuckles for a bit. 

The taller boy shifts his weight, clearing his throat a bit before speaking. "You know I'd never _not_ be interested in anything you say," he tells her slowly, peeking up through his bangs to look at her face. "I just needed some time to process... it. You. I'm sorry if I made you feel like this."

Pepi sniffles shakily, taking one hand out of his hold and — against all of her good judgement — placing it against Luka's cheek with a small, wet smile. Her cheeks glow and there are faintly visible tear tracks. "It's... alright, Luka, I promise. I mean, it isn't like I didn't need to process the presence of one newfound snake hero in our team, and who his civilian identity was, right?"

Luka giggles. His eyes stray to where he holds Pepi's other hand, playing with her fingers and allowing the hand on his cheek to play with the stray hairs sticking out. "You're my friend, Pep," he tells her. "I wouldn't want you to think that... uh, how do I say this..." Luka inhales, lifts his head and meets Pepi's eyes with a determined stare. "Of course I'm okay with you being a superhero. You'll have to know that I'm going to be worried about you, whether you're injured or not, whether... nevermind.

"The point is, Pep, I'm going to support you in everything you do," Luka says finally.

Pepi is taken aback. Her cheeks darken as she looks up at Luka, and says the first thing that comes to mind: "Even if I want to shove someone off of a cliff? With evil intentions?"

Luka tilts his head as if weighing his options. "Only if it was Hawk Moth, or Lila." His smile diminishes a bit. "But, in all seriousness — I _really_ hope you don't do _anything_ with evil intentions."

The possibility that she, a fifteen year old superheroine, would do anything would evil intentions _and_ the possession of a Miraculous scared her. Pepi remains staring up at Luka's face, and she seems to realize how close he'd gotten, but seeing as she's backed against the railing of a very tall building without her suit, the most she can do is politely ask him to move backward, please.

Luka's eyes widen and he turns a faint shade of vermilion, taking two steps backward and apologizing profusely while rubbing his neck shyly. 

When Pepi laughs at his reaction, his heart soars. He realizes her smile is beautiful, too, which at this point is no surprise — but he _would_, in all honesty, like to keep it from slipping. 

Luka wants to see her smile more.

_ I wanna be with you for everything._

**Author's Note:**

> surprised you're still here? so am i. thank you for reading!
> 
> catch me on tumblr:  
https://snushiie.tumblr.com/
> 
> and wattpad:  
https://www.wattpad.com/user/snushiie
> 
> i'd love to talk with you about anything!


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